Archive for February, 2009|Monthly archive page

U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair seems to indicate so:

“There are restrictions on him (Khan) imposed by the (Pakistani) government,” he told the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence during an open hearing. Replying to a query from Anna Eshoo, Democratic Congressman from California, who was “shocked and appalled” when Khan’s release from house arrest was announced, he said these restrictions primarily involved insuring that Khan was not connected to the network that he used before for nuclear proliferation activities.

But the secrecy over true U.S. sentiment remains:

When Congresswoman Eshoo asked whether Khan, dubbed the “father of Pakistan’s nuclear program,” still posed a proliferation threat in the eyes of the intelligence community, Blair said answers to these questions could be given only in a closed-door session.

After consulting with our Islamabad bureau, reading other news organisations’ reports and scouring the web, I have the feeling — familiar to anyone who has reported from that part of the world — that the more you look at this deal, the less you see besides the fact of the deal itself. The devil isn’t hiding in the details because there aren’t many there. He’s playing a bigger political game.

and

In other words, we still have no specifics. And it’s looking like we won’t get many more even when President Asif Ali Zardari signs and issues the final text. Sharia looks secondary here to the ceasefire the deal ushered in. The final sentence of the Feb. 16 agreement summed it up:‘‘We request Maulana Sufi Mohammad bin al-Hazrat Hasan to end his peaceful protest [for implementation of Sharia] and help the government in establishing peace in all the areas of Malakand Division.’’